Top Bar

Sunday, August 27, 2017

Unfortunately today I have to share this with the community. TLDR? If you are planning to order from Advance Deployment, stop. A ton of promises, a number of lies and lack of follow led to this outcome.

The following timeline have been shortened to spare you the number of chasers I have sent to AD and till today, no response from the company/person called Ravyn. I know he has read the messages but chose not to respond.

24th April: I placed an order with Advance Deployment. It was a large order comprising a number of basic stuff and custom items.

19th May: I receive the tokens. However, only the custom tokens came in Day-Glow Yellow while the rest came in Translucent Yellow (my entire order was meant to be Day-Glow Yellow)

5th June: chaser through emails did not seem to generate response, neither did submissions to their websites. Finally received a response on Facebook Messenger acknowledging the mess up. AD agrees to resend the missing Day-Glow set.

5th July: package arrives but the tokens are not day-glow yellow. I message AD and Ravyn now claimed that the materials used have changed. He no longer has Day-Glow Yellow. Ravyn agreed to send me another set to match Translucent Yellow.

At this stage I was beginning to get skeptical. AD could have easily just messaged me and let me know the change in materials.

I have not receive any updates or the tokens which he promised.

Aug 17th: final message to AD letting them know that I have not heard a peep from them since July. AD reads the message (FB Messenger shows you this) but doesn't respond.

Wednesday, August 2, 2017

I missed out submitting in time for Total Testerone for Wyrd's monthly competition so I made it a point to complete my submission for Femma Fatale. It's a competition that Wyrd organizes on the Forums to encourage people to push their skills or for some, just to complete their models. I definitely used it as an excuse to pimp up some models!

Now that the judging is over, here are my entries and these are the results. My models were FF57 to FF65. Here are the images I submitted. Let me know which you like the most!

Unfortunately I didn't read the rules too carefully and missed out on a subtle rule. All images should be single models only. But here are some pictures that did not qualify.

In the end I did not place Top 3 but managed to snag a participation prize which I am quite happy about! I love these models anyway and getting a prize is just icing on the cake. Thanks Wyrd!

Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Master and Faction locked in, Samuel our Henchman organized a 50 soulstone tournament for us at Card Geeks. Designed to help the newer players who had smaller hiring pools, the locked Master and Faction leveled the playing field. With a showing of 12 players, this is the best turnout yet and we are really pumped that the group is growing steadily. The following are pictures and my account of how the games went from my angle.

I locked in Leveticus (Outcasts) but I am allowed to tweak my crew from game to game. To be fair, 80% of my Crew remained constant.

1st Game - Patrick playing Jack Daw of Outcasts

For this game I brought the following crew:

Leveticus + Desolate Soul

Rusty Alyce + Desolate Soul

2 Waifs

Friekorps Sapper

Friekorps Librarian

Ashes & Dust

Johan

Strategy: Extraction

Schemes:

Claim Jump

Accusation

Leave Your Mark (selected)

Search the Ruins (selected)

Mark for Death

Arriving at Malifaux Central, the Outcasts take the field

Jack Daw under Patrick's guidance was going to be the hardest pick for the day for me. I have had a few games with him prior to this and I couldn't quite figure out how to pick apart his crew. The first mistake was probably my deployment. Putting Ashes & Dust on the left most behind the building was probably the thing that sealed the game for me.

Defeng plays off against Eugene

Turn 2

Sacrificing Ashes and Dust, I used it to move Levi up the mid field only to have him die to Jack Daw. While I could revive Levi using the Waif, Patrick's close play forced my hand and I made a few silly moves so to keep the Strategy from going down stream. The other misplay was dropping an early scheme marker with Johan which gave Patrick the heads up that I was probably doing Search the Ruins.

Turn 3

At the 2.5 hour mark, I came in losing 3-8. I had lost Levi twice in this game and between my big mistakes and good plays by Pat, it was a good game.Game 2 - Sam Kan and Shenlong of Ten Thunders

For this game I switched out my crew to include Hans and a Winged Plague.

Leveticus + Desolate Soul

Rusty Alyce + Desolate Soul

2 Waifs

Friekorps Sapper

Hans

Winged Plague

Ashes & Dust

Again, my Crew was fairly similar to the previous one except I wanted to try something a little different.

Strategy: Interference
Schemes:

Claim Jump

Accusation (selected)

Frame for Murder

Set Up

A Quick Murder (selected)

Turn 1

From the get-go I knew that Sam didn't really understand Shenlong (he kinda told me that). While Shenlong is one of the most versatile Masters in Ten Thunders, he is also not an easy Master to learn. You need to invest time and learn by reading up on his timings and upgrades. Throughout this game, I spent a bit of time coaching Sam on the finer print on Shenlong's card. I do hope that he enjoyed the game and learned a bit more about his Master.

Did I also mention he has a really beautiful Crew painted up.

Turn 1

Deploying the Sapper on elevated terrain overseeing half the table sure gave me an advantage. While I had originally picked Sensei Yu from his list to be my Quick Murder target (9SS), Sam didn't bring his Izamu card (10SS) which meant that I was under the wrong impression that I had to kill off Sensei Yu instead of Izamu.

Turn 2

I was plinking off a number of wounds from his crew, letting Levi come in the finish them up so I can proc Desolate Warping and create an Abomination from his units.

Turn 3

Amazingly enough, the High River Monks Managed to take out my Ashes & Dust but not before I scored 2 points off of them for Accusation (Turn 2 and 3).

End game - 7-0 win to me.

Game 3 - XY with Tara of Outcasts
Looks like the Outcasts were out enmasse!

I took the following:

Leveticus + Desolate Soul

Rusty Alyce + Desolate Soul

2 Waifs

Friekorps Sapper

2 Winged Plague

Ashes & Dust

Johan

Strategy: Guard the Stash

Schemes:

Claim Jump

Dig Their Graves

Leave Your Mark

Hidden Trap

Tail Em

This game was rather interesting as we had a lot of elevation due to the new terrain that Eugene got in time for the tournament. They are also very beautiful out of the box! Having split the board into 2, the guys actually mentioned that I could deploy from the side of the table rather than opposite of XY. Since I had a fair few shooters, I took the change.

Turn 1

Split the force into two groups since Tara and her Void crew would be able to just dance around the walls, allowing me to redeploy Levi where he was needed. Much to my chagrin however, I came to realise that he can be attacked while he is Buried, allowing XY to take between 5-7 buried strikes at me, ensuring that Levi will die! This forced me to play totally differently. I ended up placing him on the wall, giving me good LOS to majority of the board.

With Channel and Desolate Soul, I was able to snipe off a few of his Void Wretches giving me Abominations in return. However that turned out to be pretty lousy as it gave him Scheme Points from Dig Their Graves.

Turn 2

However, since I could not Bury this entire game (or risk being eaten to death by his multitude of buried units), I played Levi quite defensive. Alyce and the Sapper both supported my CA and between both, I managed to weaken majority of his smaller Wretches to low enough wounds before capping them off with Ashes & Dust. Props also go to XY for taking over my Ashes forcing it to attack Johan. Thankfully though, Johan managed to survive the attack and kept me in the game.

Turn 3

Once I got control back, I managed to send my Winged Plague to go score Leave Your Mark. I was rather surprised that XY didn't send his Wretch to take care of my Winged Plague on the flank. However, I did hold back by letting Alyce go last. If XY sent a Wretch up the flank, I would make short work if it.

End game - 6-2, victory to me

By the time the day finished, most of us were tired but content. These were the results:

Saturday, June 17, 2017

Quite recently my Malifaux Whatsapp group has been discussing how to best prep and paint the Malifaux models. In particular, some of the guys are of the opinion that Wyrd models are harder to paint compared to a GW model which tend to have more defined lines. I disagreed and promptly was asked how I did mine in such short periods to a reasonable quality.

Prep work - all the way up to zenithal

Prep work is very critical to shaving huge amounts of time off your eventual painting time. While it may seem slow at first, you must step back to see that the effect of priming in batches and then doing the zenithal in batches shaves down the per model time used per model.

Always build as many models as you can - prioritizing those you need first. I tend to go in batches where I build a thematic group or based on when Card Geeks bring in my models. I prime them all with Flat Black out of rattle can. I leave this to dry overnight.

Another question that comes up often: Do I build the model and glue it to the base?
Most of the time, the answer is "Yes" - especially with Malifaux models which tend to be tiny and you can lose the parts easily. Also, at this size, it's ok to miss spots. The wash technique I use in the later stages will cover any small parts which may be missed at the priming stage.

The time I leave them in sub assemblies is when the parts are significantly different colours such as Hannah and her suit. One was primed with silver while Hannah was primed using the zenithal technique.

An airbrush is not critical with this method. Why? Because you can achieve the same with a rattle can. Just word of caution, try to stick to a single brand because they manufacture rattle cans differently so the difference in pressure can cause significant spray buildup on your miniature. I use Nippon Paint - Flat Black. I then follow it up with Vallejo Flat White through an Airbrush at 20PSI 0.3mm nozzle. You can replicate this using a rattle can. Just use a miniature you can afford to throw away initially to get a sense of how the paint falls.

I then complete ALL their bases together

I chose to do all bases first to keep them consistent with each other and to tie them as one. Also, dry brushing tend to be quite messy so this helps prevent any screw ups which can destroy the paint job.

I then shift modes - focussing on one model at a time. I usually move between 3-4 models while waiting for them to dry between stages. From this point, I use the Wash Technique and you will have to give each model time to dry between colours and washes or you ruin your paint job.

Primed and based

Notice how the whites really pick out all the highlights and the primer created the shade? This speeds up the painting process immensely.

Always start lowest part then up

By lowest, I mean the part that is deepest in the model such as the skin. Why? Any paint you spill gets picked up by the subsequent colours you use to do the dress, hair etc. Saving you time again.

Once the Bone colour has dried (overnight in my case), I hit it with a shade

This shade can be any colour you like. For Levi and his creations, I visualise a very undead crew. There were not going to have lively skins or even a tinge of being alive so I went with a pallid colour over an equally palid base colour of Bone White.

I then leave the shade to dry and work on another model.

First coat of Dark Blue

You can choose any colour you like here but the key thing is keeping your paint extremely thin. I chose this Waif mainly because her dress was the largest, giving me ample space to demonstrate how the wash can do wonders and create a very realistic effect. Notice how the dark sections are still shaded? The wash naturally will sink into the deeper recesses and the highlights from your zenithal method will create the highlight, again very naturally.

Round 2 - coat 2

I thought the colour was too light in the first pass so I hit it with another very thin run of Dark Blue. Vallejo Air Color is fantastic because of how thin the colour is out of the bottle. Once you shade your model, leave it to dry. Work on another model.

Highlight that skin back up

After washing the skin with the Cathonian Shade, I felt that I needed to redefine the nose, the forehead, the fingers etc so I came back with Bone White again. Again, keep your paint thin to blend the layers together. I find that feathering really helped to tie the two colours together.

A mix of light blue with dark blue

I mixed a batch to thin highlight the edges of the cloth. This is done to pick out the tops of the folds of the dress. I am basically highlighting back the areas that my zenithal was showing should be light of color.

Pure light blue

After that was done, I came back with another pass, this time keeping slightly closer to the "top" of the model, where I visualise that the light would be coming. Keep your paint thin.

As the final run, I hit with pure grey

Using a very last layer, I hit it with an extreme highlight, in this case pure light grey. You can see in the photo above, it creates a distinct POP. You can skip this step if you like but I find this the most fun step of all!

Sunday, May 28, 2017

Samuel together with Card Geeks organized another Henchman Hardcore tournament for the local players. This time we managed to gather 10 players.

I brought Rusy Alyce, Johan, Strongarm Suit and Desperate Mercenary. Ai brought Ottotto, Jorugumo, Lone Swordsman and a Clockwork Trap. We both built the lists based on how hard they could hit considering Henchman Hardcore tend to encourage face beating.

My first opponent was Patrick. His list was one that made mine Slow. Really slow. He eventually made a gamble (which we felt he didn't have to) to try to take out Alyce. Unfortunately for him, I managed to score a Red Joker and proceeded to take his Leader down to more than half, awarding me an additional 1 point and drawing the game.

4-4 draw. Patrick was berating himself for awhile! LOL

My crew posing near the tents

Ai's list take on Eugene's list. It was a hilarious game with them tying for 2-2

I ended up drawing against my wife for Round 2. It was like we have practiced!

Ai managed to take down my Desperate Merc early game but in return I killed off the Swordsman. We drew 2-2

I ended drawing against XY for Round 3. He brought an Aionius list but this time with a massive beater in the form of the Nothing Beast. His plan was interesting. Throw the transparent crew forward and nullify my lines.

Unfortunately for him, I took out his Void Wretch early and then did a bit of wounds on the Nothing Beast. However, it managed to do some massive return hits and took my Strongarm Suit down.

While he failed to kill off Alyce, I fluffed by flips against Aionius who limped away with 3 wounds.

It was a draw for 3-3

It seemed like I could not get a break. I was drawing the whole day! Every game! LOL

Just another beauty shot of my crew.

In the Final Round I was teed up against Ed who had just gotten into the game. I have never fought against the Gremlins before this and had no idea what to expect so lined up as per normal. He had a Peon so I knew I had the model advantage for the Strategy.

In a stroke of strategic genius, Ed split one of his Wild Boars out to my flank (it has a 9" threat range) and in one activation managed to kill off my Strongarm Suit!! However, a oversight by Ed left one of his models outside the 6" reach from the token, allowing me to claim it. I also managed to bring his Leader down to half wounds, giving me another point for a 3-1 win.

Albino pigs!

At the end, Derek won the first prize but went for the Limited Edition Sonnia card. Eugene came in second but couldn't decide what prize to pick, allowing Patrick to go for the large mystery box.

And it's Jack Daw Transparent!

Patrick had just purchased a set like this from Samuel a couple of weeks prior to the tournament! LOL! He then offered to sell it to me for $50 and I took it. I have been considering buying this set any way and now that it's here, why not!

In all, everyone got what they wanted and unfortunately there was no Best Painted -- the one prize I always go for. Next tournament then!

Saturday, May 27, 2017

With the Henchman Hardcore tournament coming up just around the corner, I started working on the models! Here they are.

Rusty Alyce and Strongarm Suit

Trap for Ai's list

Rusty Alyce completed

WIP for the Jorugumo

A bit of that back action

To be fair, I struggled to finish the models for Ai's list - mainly the Jorugumo as I am not sure what scheme to work the spider up to. For now, the above pic will suffice until I find something inspiring.

Total Pageviews

About Us

This blog will serve as our community blog. A place that we can use to share our experience in gaming wherever you are - Hong Kong, Singapore or Australia etc.

I hope we get a steady group of followers, people who are like minded like us - out to have fun.

Fun is defined as an evocative game of 40k or Fantasy in amazing terrain and beautifully painted armies. A game where winning is not everything but ensuring you can tell a good story at the end of the game.

If you connect with the above, then you are with a community of like minded gamers. I invite you to meet with one of us wherever you are. Send me a message or leave a comment with some contact details. We will be keen to game with you as well. "Follow" the blog to get regular updates and do get in touch!